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Sunday, 16 October 2005

BBC's Highfield Says Media Owners Must Become Technologists Too

Mike Butcher writes: "Ashley
Highfield, head of BBC New Media, spoke to the UK's
Association of Online Publishers Conference in London today, telling them
that in the future, major broadcasters like the BBC would actually produce less
content not more, and act as aggregators and trusted guides to
user generated content like blogs. ¶ After noting that, in the famous phrase,
the 'future not what it used to be', referenced how the pace of change was
massively quickening in new media. ¶ 'We are on the edge of a broadcast
revolution. Over the last nine months we have seen exponential growth. The BBC
now puts out 10GB a second of audio/visual streaming content -
equivalent to broadcasting 2,500 TV channels simultaneously.
The daily audience online for the 6pm TV news broadcast is now the same.' ..." Link: PaidContent.org.

BBC online chief urges publishers to focus on functionality. "Speaking at the AOP Online Publishing Conference 2005 recently
(Friday 7 October), director of new media and technology for the BBC,
Ashley Highfield claimed that a fundamental shift in mindset is needed
if major media organisations are to flourish in the digital age. ¶ 'I think the major determinant of success or failure in the
converged world is how we respond to the increased rate of adoption of
new technologies, and predicting when these will reach critical mass,'
he said. ..." Link: The UK Association of Online Publishers.